And this speaker and his likes—among those whose understanding is too narrow to take some of Allah's speech according to its literal reality, and thus resort to metaphor (al-majaz), such as His saying, the Exalted: “The hand of Allah is over their hands,” and His saying: [“Do they await except that Allah should come to them in shadows of clouds and the angels and the matter is judged? And to Allah all matters are returned.”] ¹ ,

and His saying: [“Indeed, those who abuse Allah and His Messenger—Allah has cursed them in this world and the Hereafter and prepared for them a humiliating punishment.”] ² —interpret the "Hand" as power, His "coming" as the coming of His command, and the disbelievers' "abuse" of Him as their attributing a partner and a son to His Divine Presence. They proceeded with the interpretation of that by way of metaphor based upon the other sayings of the Exalted: “There is nothing like unto Him,” and “And for Allah is the highest attribute,” and “Vision perceives Him not.” They compared the two sets of discourse—both being in the description of Allah and pertaining to His Majesty—and they deemed that the One who is such that there is nothing like unto Him, vision perceives Him not, and to whom belongs the loftiest attribute, it would be unseemly to maintain concerning Him that He goes and comes, or possesses an outstretched hand, or is abused, as is the case with the creature.